Envy can wither our souls, bringing ruin to our lives and the lives of those around us if left unchecked. But, God gives grace to the envious through gospel community and worship, healing and reorienting our lives through gratitude and praise to Jesus.

In this next installment in Pastor Kevin’s message series on Freedom in Christ, we will look at Galatians 5, which describes a conflict that exists in every heart. The apostle Paul outlines the two sides of our internal struggle, the Spirit versus our sinful desires, and helps his readers both then and now understand how to successfully navigate these situations and achieve a positive outcome.

In the second part of our discussion on Spiritual Gifts, Craig challenges us to identify what our gifts are and to use them to glorify Christ. A healthy body is made up of all gifts, so we must guard ourselves against comparison and envy.

Sometimes it feels really discouraging to see people who seem to get by doing evil and bad things while you make good choices and seem to suffer. What gives? When David had a lot of years behind him, he wrote a Psalm about this very thing. Today we join him in Psalm 37 to get a better perspective on our attitudes in the face of iniquity.

All of us carry around baggage, things which weigh us down in life. This can be the feeling of arrogance, disappointment, hopelessness or something else. There is one burden that all of us at some point have carried... the burden of envy. So what can we learn today about how to cope with this baggage?

I didn’t have to think very long about which of the seven serious sins should go with Palm Sunday. The chief priests and the Pharisees, all the religious leaders envied Jesus’ popularity and power, His authority and influence. People were flocking to Him.
In the face of Jesus’ greatest miracle, raising Lazarus after being dead for four days, their response was envy and jealousy and unbelief. Such is the power of sin in our hearts to resist clear evidence and turn us away from the truth and into evil.
Notice their motive. “If we don’t stop Jesus He will disrupt everything, we will lose our place and our nation. If we don’t bring Him down, He will bring us down.”
They disguised their sin by saying they were looking out for everyone’s good, preserving the social and national order. Their love for the public good covered their hatred of Jesus.
We see how strong the sin of envy can be when they were compelled to act against someone who had done them no wrong. Lazarus had done nothing wrong to anyone. He was just living, but his very existence was enough to drive them into a frenzy of envy and hatred.
Three years of pent up frustration and envy are coming to a head. They are tired of being in Jesus’ shadow, they despise Him. Everything He did was successful, good, praised. It galled them to see their enemy triumphing.
“Look, the world has gone after him.” Envy exaggerates. The religious leaders didn’t just want what Jesus had, they didn’t want Him to have it. They wanted Him dead.